Relaxation of Control

Although the sequence of events is not always clear from
the available evidence, we know that before the first contracts
with the farmers expired, they were replaced. This took place
on January 8, 1630, when the Company rented six farms to six
individuals as of May 1, 1630. In these contracts the Company
control was relaxed. No longer did the animals stay in
possession of the company; this time to each farmer were sold
four horses, four cows, two yearlings, six sheep and six swine,
and all farming implements for 600 guilders, but the farmers,
in addition, had to pay two horses of three years, two cows of
two years, three sheep and three swine as soon as they would be
available.note To each farmer a suitable farm with a house,
hay barrack, and barn was rented, together with about fifty
morgens of land, for the term of six years.

On the first of May 1630, almost five years after the
start, there were eight farms on the island with forty-seven
horses, sixty cattle and seventy-nine sheep. If we assume that
eighty-one horses and cattle survived the voyage and the
seasoning period, the increase in these years had been
thirty-two percent.note

A letter of September 1630 gives the impression of much
activity by stating that much land daily is ploughed by the
farmers.note Soon after this, however, the situation of
agriculture on the island began to deteriorate. By issuing the
Freedoms and Exemptions of 1629 for prospective great
landowners (patroons)in the colony, the Company had itself laid
the foundation for the ruinous development of its farms.
Paradoxically, it was the great protagonist for agricultural settlement in New Netherland and large shareholder of the
Company, Kiliaen van Rensselaer, who played a central part in
the problems that evolved.

The inventory of animals at the Manhattan farms presented
above was drawn up by Van Rensselaer in order to calculate how
many "surplus" livestock there was on the Company farms, above
the numbers provided for in the contracts. By doing this, he
was able to find out how many animals could be purchased from
the farmers by his agents. To complicate matters further, one
of the head farmers, Wolfert Gerritsz, played a double role by
acting as a Company tenant and as Van Rensselaer's agent on
Manhattan. In fact, in the five years after the Freedoms and
Exemptions, Company officials and farmers on the island sold
almost all their animals to Van Rensselaer, and, to a lesser
degree, a number of other private individuals.note This
development found its culmination in the years 1632-1634, when
Van Rensselaer bought livestock from at least four different
farms on Manhattan. In July 1632, all animals of Bijlevelt's
farm were sold to the patroon, including five horses, nine
cows, six sheep, and six swine.note